


Changes

by Shaladaze



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Exploring Half Ghost’s, Not Phantom Planet Compliant, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-18
Updated: 2019-08-01
Packaged: 2019-08-03 20:05:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 21,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16332593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shaladaze/pseuds/Shaladaze
Summary: Phantom planet never happened. Danny was still a thing of mystery to most if not all of the world. But things have changed in the past few years, a lot of things.





	1. Golfing and dogs

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to move most of my works to Archive. So if you saw it on FF this is why.

Danny, half ghost, half human. Only 17 years of age and a year of high school left. No one should have been surprised things had changed, yet everyone was, everyone meaning; Sam, Tucker, and Jazz.

At 15 Danny had been with his friends at the Nasty Burger just chilling out when Sam finally lost whatever control she had and told him that she and Tucker were dating. Danny in turn just laughed and stated that he was waiting for them to get together. They were surprised but happy nonetheless.

A year later they broke up like 6 times, it was the most annoying on and off relationship Danny had ever watched and he had really hoped they would stow it soon. Danny hadn't told his parents about his powers and his friends weren't familiar with too much of his ghost work anymore.

Now, 2 years later, they hung out all the time just like they used to, the only difference was Sam and Tucker's relationship status, which was thankfully steady. So here they were playing outdoor mini golf at the new park just at the edge of town.

Tucker stood intently watching the windmill as it turned, waiting for just the right moment. Danny watched just as intensely, but the moment Tucker hit it, he knew that ball wasn't going where Tucker thought it would go. It rolled quickly but surely into one of the many blades and bounced harmlessly to the side.

"Oh man! I hate this game!" Tucker pouted and moved out of the way so Sam could go.

"You know, if you let me teach you some tricks it won't be as hard." Sam lined up the ball and herself in the same spot as Tucker.

"I would rather marry my computer" Tucker's scowl was heard in his voice.

Danny watched Sam closely but not as close as Tucker as she hit the ball, he knew she was good at most things she did. Sure enough the ball went right thru the gap and slowed on the other side.

"Your turn Danny!" Sam walked over to stand triumphantly next to the mopping Tucker.

Danny took Sam's place on the ground and dropped his ball. When he had it where he wanted it, he looked at the windmill. He waited, debating how hard to hit it and when. The moment came and Danny hit the ball just enough for it to glide smoothly through the hole and past Sam's.

"Nice shot." Sam clapped her hands a little as Danny and Tucker switched places.

"Good luck, Tuck." Danny pat Tucker's shoulder as he past by.

"Yeah sure, go ahead and laugh at me. I still hate this game." Tucker stood next to his ball seeing it almost impossible at this angle but swung his club anyway.

Danny took pity on Tucker and leaned on the Windmill making it intangible so the ball could pass through it harmlessly. Tucker looked gratefully at him before Sam walked to her black personalized ball while speaking.

"Danny, he won't learn if you help him cheat like that." She placed her club by the ball.

"Oh, come on Sam, it's one hole, it's not like he was 100% all happy to go golfing but you wanted to go so he came." Danny hit Tucker with his elbow a little.

Tucker took the hint "It's true Sam! I had wanted to spend some time with you and Danny, and I know how much you like golf, so I came anyway." He smiled a little as Sam hit her ball into the hole.

Sam gave them both a pointed look before going to retrieve her ball "You two were always like this. Teaming up on me behind my back."

Danny laughed as Tucker nodded his head "Maybe a little but not always. I still love you and Danny is my best friend."

"Yeah! And don't say it's just us! You two have teamed up on me plenty of times." Danny moved to his own yellow ball as he talked.

Tucker nodded "True." Before hugging Sam to his side.

They waited in silence as Danny hit his ball into the hole "Yeah! That's the least hits yet!" He cheered himself a little as he grabbed his ball.

Tucker looked a little put out but stood by his ball nonetheless "Just you wait, I'm going to miss."

Sam stood by him "Here, try holding your arms like this, and look at the hole not the ball, then swing like that and it should help." Sam demonstrated her words as she spoke moving slowly so Tucker could see.

Tucker for his part, reluctantly tried to follow her lead, much to his surprise it glided right into the hole "YES! I MADE IT!!" Hugging Sam before running to get his ball.

Danny smiled as he watched before walking over to the tiki. It was the easiest shot besides from the first. You just had to hit it hard and straight. Tucker went first and cheered again as he made it. Sam didn't do this part since the ball was hers and so was the club, the tiki was just another way to get the balls back so people won't steal them. Danny hit his into the large mouth and walked with Tucker to return the clubs at the desk.

"I'll see you two at the car!" Sam yelled as she ran off to the exit.

Tucker waved her off placing his own club on the counter. Danny had gone to do the same when his ghost sense went off. Looking around quickly, he didn't notice anything weird or ghostly yet, following Tucker to the exit.

"Danny, you ok?" Tucker paused in the gate.

Danny nodded "Yeah I'm fine, I just got the chills." It was a code phrase they came up with. Too many close calls in the past when people asked what he meant by ghost sense.

Tucker got the idea and nodded before waving "We'll wait for you." Before walking over to Sam's jeep.

Danny didn't waste a moment to run into the bathroom and find an empty stall before transforming. The familiar cold and flash of light was always welcomed though sometimes reluctantly because it reminded him he wasn't quite human.

Lifting off the floor and through the roof Danny took a look around. Nothing by the outdoor golf course, nothing by the lake, nothing near the playground and nothing in the parking lot. Maybe he missed something, we waited for about a minute before giving up. He was probably just seeing things, or the ghost had left, leaving no harm in its wake. Guess it doesn't matter now.

Dropping to the ground near the bathroom, Danny was about to enter when his ghost sense went off again.

"Ok, whoever you are, come out already. This is getting ridiculous!" Danny turned around to stare at the bushes as a familiar green dog jumped out at him.

"Cujo? Oh, hey! What are you doing here?" Danny lent over to pet the dog as it panted heavily.

"Bark, bark!" Tail wagging and all, the dog was happy to see Danny.

"Did you miss me? Is that why you're here?" Danny picked up the dog and went invisible before flying to Sam's car.

Danny found them by the entrance before phasing in and transforming.

"AH!" Tucker screamed from the front seat before looking at Danny. "Don't do that Danny! Just because we see you do that all the time, doesn't mean it isn't scary! Sudden flashes of light could be anything!!"

Said boy just laughed and set the dog down in his lap.

"If that dog makes a mess of my car..." Sam left it hanging for dramatic effect.

"Relax Sam, I've tamed him a bit more since the last time, we won't do anything. Isn't that right Cujo?" Danny looked at his dog as it yipped and laid down in his lap to sleep.

Sam just rolled her eyes before starting the drive to the New and improved Nasty Burger. Since the last one went out of date. The boiler was replaced with solar panels on the roof, and the stove tops were now electric, thanks to Tucker's father being the current major and Sam's all for nature attitude, things in the city had changed for the better.

When they arrived Danny pulled out the Ghost cage from the back, it was really just a dog kennel that prevented ghost powers.

"Alright Cujo, in you go." Danny opened the door and the dog happily crawled in before settling down. "Good boy."

Sam and Tucker got out of the car as Danny made sure Cujo was safe.

"You have him trained well, think it would work on Tucker?" Sam smiled as she pointed at her boy friend, who opened the door.

Tucker made the most indignant noise Danny had ever heard from him "I do NOT need to be trained!!!"

Danny walked behind them as they neared the counter. He had watched as the two bickered and ordered their food at the same time making sure to put his order in too.

"Oh, Tucker it's not like I called you a dog directly." Sam stated.

"But it was heavily implied and I know you meant it." Tucker pointed at her.

Sam smiled "I only half meant it, besides I like cats better, dogs are too unruly."

"So you're calling me a lazy ball of fur?" Tucker was just making stuff up now.

"I am not! Danny is more like a dog than you!" Sam half yelled this.

Danny's ever so graceful "Hey" went unheard by them as they sat at a table to wait.

"So I am a cat to you?!" Tucker had risen his voice a little.

"That is not what I said!" Sam rose to the challenge.

Danny decided to butt in and stop them before too much more attention was drawn "Hey, I started dating my reflection this morning" It was something he said once to get them to stop arguing and now he just said it as a joke.

The owlish eyes around them and the deafening silence were enough to get the two to stop as they looked at Danny.

"I'm surprised you are willing to say that in public." Sam had significantly dropped her volume smiling a bit.

"Yeah dude, I know it's like, your way to get us to shut up, but it's still weird to hear." Tucker made a face before looking around. The crowd was gone and their food was ready, the exited beret wearing teen ran to get it before another word could be said.

"Oh, yeah, hey Danny! How are you doing in school so far? You looking to graduate?" Sam pulled out her new phone, a model that wasn't even out yet.

"So far yeah. My parents weren't too happy with the fact I got all B's last year even though Dad did." Danny was reminded of the argument his parents had with him when *Technus was trying to rule his video game.

"Your parents will lighten up Danny, as long as you pass right?" Sam started poking her screen.

"That's what you think, they still don't know about my little secret, and who knows what they will do when they find out! *They were attacking Jazz for 3 days until they were convinced she wasn't a ghost." He spoke in hushed tones near the end as Tucker marched over with food.

"Alright! One veggie-burger! One all might meat! And a regular chick-sandwich!" Tucker handed out the food as he spoke.

"Tucker, why do you still eat so much meat? It's not good for you. And those might meat's are more grease then actual meat." Sam spoke as she inspected her veggie-burger.

"Relax Sam! I've had the meat streak of 17 years! And still going strong!" Tucker took not a moment more to speak as he started to dig in.

Danny ignore their Meat vs Veggies episode in favor of eating his own sandwich. They could make an entire TV series about this topic if they really wanted. They argue so much Danny knew almost everything about meat and vegetable products by heart, he just couldn't understand why they didn't just eat both, meat is good, vegetables are good, together they're even better.

"One day, animals would never pay the price for the worlds meal times." Sam speaks like it's a revolution.

"And when all the vegetables are gone, you'll have nothing to eat." Tucker was crossing his arms now.

Danny was done with this "Guys! Can't you two just eat without fighting? For once? Meat is good, vegetables are good. Now stop it."

They shut their mouths and continued to eat their meals in relative silence.

When they finished eating, Sam and Tucker decided to go to a movie that Danny didn't want to see, so they left while Danny flew Cujo to Amity park. It was nearing about 9 PM when the ghost duo made it to the mass of green, and since Danny was older his parents had changed his curfew to 11, to Danny's growing relief.

Opening the carrier, Danny watched as Cujo jumped out and ran in a circle a few times.

"Happy to be out?" Danny set down the box.

"Bark bark!" Cujo stood in front of Danny wagging his tail.

"Wanna play catch?" Danny looked around before he held up his hand to made an ecto-ball.

"No one's around!" Cujo barked at Danny's words getting ready to run.

"FETCH!" Danny chucked the ball forward while Cujo started his chase.

He had been working out, not just his ghost form, but his human form as well. He found out that his ghost half is strongly tied to his human half and it made sense, since he looked so similar in both forms. He went to the gym regularly now and his parents didn't mind paying for his monthly membership.

He was still surprised no one could figure out he was the same as Phantom. His name practically gave it away but people just don't pay attention.

Maybe one day he would tell his family, at the very least. It would just take him a little bit more time to find the courage to stand in front of his ghost hunting parents and tell them he was the ghost kid...

"Haha yeah, right, look mom I'm a ghost! Oh no you don't like it? Yeah that's fine just rip me apart molecule by molecule..." Danny looked up to the sky as he whispered his troubles "Maybe one day... But not yet..."


	2. The Jazz advice

Danny woke with a start as his alarm blared at him to get up. Only a year of this left and then it was over, soon he wouldn't have to worry about school. As soon as he gets his butt out of bed and hauls his slow body to the bathroom.

"Danny, hurry and get ready, I'm going to take you to school today!" Jazz called up the stairs.

Danny huffed as he rolled out of bed and walked to the bathroom, honesty he was a slow waker when he wasn't preoccupied with ghosts. Sam and Tucker would complain when they had sleepovers all the time before and after the accident.

Danny brushed his teeth quickly before running to his room to throw on a few clean clothes, still not quite awake. He decided that he didn't want to take the effort to go down the stairs today, so he jumped the railing instead.

"I'm here, happy now?" Jazz was just clearing her place at the table, when Danny walked in.

"I told you to stop jumping over the railing, Danny! You can get really hurt from that!" Jazz waved her finger like a mother from those old cartoons.

Danny rolled his eyes "Oh, come on Jazz, you of all people know that won't hurt me." 

Jazz sighed "Yeah, what about mom and dad?"

Danny grabbed some bread walking to the door "I've done it before when they were down here."

Jazz ran to follow, grabbing her purse as she went "And how did that go?"

Danny grabbed his bag from next to the front door "You know them, Dad was all 'Thata boy! Learning his father's moves!' And them mom made the 'Excuse me?!!' Face and then dad said 'uh... I mean your mothers moves!' Then smiles his signature Jack Fenton smile." 

Jazz laughed as she opened the door and walked to the garage "You need to be careful Danny, I know you don't feel like you have much to fear from them but they could really hurt you if you're not careful!"

Danny opened the garage door and hopped into the passenger seat "Yeah, yeah! Ghost weapons and everything I know, I should watch my back! But come on Jazz, you really think they will figure it out after all of these years? I mean come on, I fight ghosts every day!"

Jazz sat in the front seat turning on the car "Danny, I know you think they can be a little..." Danny cut in "crazy, psychotic, neglectful, air headed, embarrassing, missing a few bolts?" Jazz frowned "Out there. But you need to try and be more positive around them. Soon it'll just be you and them."

Danny crossed his arms "You mean me vs them?"

Jazz started to drive toward Casper High "Danny. Come on you know you love them both! Even if things can be... A little hard.... Around them, they are still family."

Danny sighed "I know, it's just going to be harder with you going to college in the next few weeks..."

Jazz smiled but kept her eyes on the road "I know Danny, but think of it this way! With all the technology around we can keep in touch! Besides! It's not like I'm moving to another country!"

Danny looked out the window "You're moving to Nebraska.... Do you know how far away that is?"

Jazz smiled pulling up to the school "552 miles away. That's an 8 hour and 3 minute drive not talk taking into account the fact you could hit every stop light on the way there which would make it 9 hours to drive there. Which if I'm right would take you... Let's say you fly 100 miles per hour divided by... Would be 5 hours roughly! So it shouldn't be a problem Danny!"

Danny frowned "You really just did all the math and calculations for that as well as memorized how long it would take me to get there....... You are such a nerd...." Danny smiled as his sister frowned.

"Well you could be a little nicer about it." Jazz gave an indignant huff.

"I was!" Danny hugs Jazz across the car before hopping out "Thanks for dropping me off!"

Jazz waved as Danny ran off toward the school building, if Jazz had been honest she was actually leaving late for college because she wanted to be with Danny when he started school. She knew their parents wouldn't have been there for Danny the way he needed them this last year of school but she could at least be there for the first few weeks.

“I’m sure you can make it one more year Danny.” Jazz whispered to herself as she started to drive home.


	3. Bullies

School had changed, no that wasn't the best way to put it. The students had changed, not just because the new school year saw graduates leave and new faces arrive but the overall attitude as well. Since things had been changing, their small town was slowly expanding, more people were moving in.

Danny and his friends weren't "the popular" kids but they had gained a lot of respect. Tucker was considered something of a genius since he was an A student his looks had done him better to, not Jock standard but still doing good, Sam was an A student as well, smart and once puberty past she was better looking than Paulina, Danny for his part, was now closer to a jocks physique and with 2 helpful and smart friends he was sitting on a B average. To say the rest of their grade was regretting past decisions would be a lie.

Sadly, the trio didn't notice much.

"Hey, Danny!" Tucker had looked up from his locker to see his partner in crime walking toward him.

"Sup Tuck! Seen Sam around?" Danny waved before going to his own locker.

"Not yet, she said she had a surprise in a message she sent me this morning. I'm not sure what it is but I'm taking bets." Tucker smiled when he watched Danny struggle to open his locker.

"7 years of opening lockers and I still have trouble opening them." Finally giving up he reached in with his ghost hand to pry the lock open.

"At least you can do that. The rest of us have to suffer!" Tucker laughed before looking at his buzzing phone.

Danny grabbed his book, "Is it Sam?"

Tucker nodded before turning around, "Yup, and she needs a little help."

A frown "What's wrong?"

"Some Jocks are causing her trouble." Tucker started running.

Danny followed the techno Geek with ease "What? Why?"

"No idea, she just sent 'S.O.S Jocks'." Tucker huffed as he rounded a corner.

Danny followed Tucker down a few more halls before hearing some rather loud arguing.

"Come on! We too good for you?"

"Are you kidding? You're repulsive and younger than me. Besides I'm an ultra-vegetarian. Now get lost." Sam was on her last thread before someone lost an arm.

"Come on babe! We would be perfect!" A football player.

Danny slid to a stop looking at the 3 juniors trapping Sam in a corner. Tucker looked ready to beat someone with his PDA, and let's just leave that story at that.

"HEY!" Said geek took a step forward as all 4 of them looked over.

"Oh look! It's a nerd!" He seemed to be the leader, kind of thin for a Jock, in Danny's opinion.

The small group started laughing till they saw Danny following close behind the 'Nerd'.

"You're juniors?" Danny was standing at about a good foot over them all.

"Y-yeah! What's it to you?!" the biggest one said, funny his voice hadn't hit puberty yet.

Sam stepped around the 3 jocks to hug Tucker. "Morning, Tuck."

Said Geek hugged his little Goth before responding, "Good morning, my beautiful black maiden!"

One of the Jocks growled and grabbed Tuckers shirt, pulling him close, "Hey! We were having a conversation with her you little nerd!"

The 'Nerd' gave him a blank look, "Dude, she's my girlfriend and I'm pretty sure that wasn't a conversation."

Danny sighed hopping things didn't get ugly, because if the jocks didn't do anything other than weight training and football, they were going to get their butts whooped pretty hard. Danny being an avid ghost fighter was bad enough, Sam had convinced Tucker to take taekwondo classes with her last year, as of 2 months ago they were purple belts.

"Ew! You're dating this garbage?! I could be much better for you! Dump this trash and pick up something newer!" The ego on this kid might actually rival Vlad's and that is saying something.

Sam looked ready to punch the guy as she opened her mouth to say something, but Danny decided to cut in, "Hey," all eyes turned to him as he drew up to his full height "First: Tucker's a Geek not a nerd. There is a difference. Second: Gothic Vegetarians are high maintenance and require 5 times more than you could ever offer. Third: If you don't get out of here things will get ugly. Lucky for us it won't ruin whatever chance we have at a scholarship by getting a little scuffed up, but I don't think anyone will want you on their football team if you played too rough in high school."

The first jock squared his shoulders, but the other 2 behind him seemed to be reconsidering their involvement. "My father is the Dean at Central Lakes College! You can't touch me!"

Danny had enough, "Maybe you didn't understand," reaching to his Core with practiced ease he pulled a fraction of his power from its place in his chest giving his eyes an eerie glowing blue effect, opting out of using the ghostly green, "I'm telling you to get out of here. Now." With the last word he used the small wisp of power to create the feeling of fear. He didn't use it often not even Sam and Tucker knew about it, but he could use it now.

"DUDE RUN!" The smallest of them yelled before booking it down the halls, the other two hot on his tail as the guy holding Tucker dropped him and tripped on his own feet while trying to run. Once out of sight the small group of 3 started laughing.

"Oh, man! That was great!" Tucker held his stomach as he bent forward.

"That was pretty funny, I think that one dude pissed his pants." Sam was laughing a little calmer, but it was all real.

Danny for his part laughed hard before taking a huge gulp of breath, "That worked better than I had hopped!"

Sam jumped on him then, "What did you do anyway?"

Tucker straightened up calming down but the smile still in place, "Yeah, what did you do? First it was all calm and your eyes kinda got more intense before I got this awful feeling to run away from you."

Danny blushed, "It wasn't supposed to do anything to you guys, guess I put too much power into it." He started scratching his head in embarrassment.

"But what was it Danny? How did you do it?" Sam, the always-probing-to-know-as-much-as-possible was at it again, with Tucker the everlasting-nerd-on-ghost-research right on the train with her.

"I started calling it Ghost Fear; I kinda learned it on accident actually. See I was getting bullied by some thug in an alley after a fight with Skulker, he got some upgrades, and I was super tired and I used my ghost powers in my human form to scare him off and he dropped his switch knife and ran off screaming before I could stop him."

Sam punched him in the arm while her backup crew started yelling, "YOU WERE GETTING MUGGED AND YOU DIDN'T CALL US?! NO MESSAGE, NO PHONE CALL, NOTHING? AND WE ARE JUST HEARING ABOUT IT NOW? WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN!" Tucker breathed hard as he recovered from his outburst.

"SHHHH, calm down Tuck! Do you want the whole school to know? I was fine and it's not like I got hurt. Besides I didn't finish my story." Danny rubbed his arm on reflex, they couldn't hurt him with a hit like that but it's an old habit from years of pretending to be human all the time.

Sam huffed, "Fine, finish your story, but we are going to talk about your lack of contact as soon as you are finished!" A stern finger pointing to the face.

"Alright, alright. Anyway, I was in the bathroom later and I was trying to do it again, after a while I figured it was nothing because nothing was changing except my eyes, but then Jazz started pounding on the door really loud and I opened the door to her holding the Fenton blaster in hand asking me what was happening. We talked later in my room about what had happened before all of that and she told me to show her, so I did," Danny takes a breath, "She had screamed, and I was glad mom and dad weren't home and I had to calm her down before we could talk again. Eventually after some practice and some deep talking about it, we came to the decision that I could create a field around me that caused people to be scared."

Tucker and Sam stared at Danny with a dead look as they tried to process his half story half informative, but before they could say anything the bell rang.

Danny laughed "Well, we can talk after school! Good luck in Chem lab!" literally saved by the bell, the ghost child walked off to his first class.


	4. Astronomy

Danny sat in his Astronomy class silently as the teacher droned on about how a spaceship engine was made, it was not supposed to be this boring. A rockets engine was one of the coolest parts of the ship! It had to use light weight material that wouldn't automatically melt as soon as the launch sequence started, for heaven sakes they explode to get off the ground, BUT THIS WAS SO BORING! How can someone take a really cool subject and turn it into a lecture that makes kids want to pull their hair out. This was the whole reason that teenagers skip class to go to a gas station or Nasty Burger.

"Fenton, is my class boring you?" Mr. Purenski was staring at Danny as he finally snapped out of his daze.

Danny blinked a few times before responding "I-no! I was just... wondering if there was a better fuel to use for a rocket instead of kerosene or liquid hydrogen. I know we aren't on that part of the rocket yet but with how much fuel a rocket needs to lift off, it's not as... eco-friendly, or preservative of our planets limited resources as we would like."

The teacher looked to be a little lost for what to say and Danny took the small victory he was given, finally Mr. Purenski cleared his throat before speaking once more.

"Yes, well, you are correct that we haven't gotten to lift off yet. We are still focusing on making sure we don't blow up before leaving the ground, anyway! Back to our papers-"

Danny tuned out this time, he couldn't help it, the cold chill down his spine and a huff of blue smoke out of his mouth was very distracting, especially when the kid in front of him was shivering. Danny had been leaning forward when his ghost sense went off and the blue puff blew right down the kids neck.

Quietly the kid mumbled to himself "Man, it's cold in here."

Danny only felt slightly sympathetic, mostly guilt since it was his fault the dude was cold. Sitting up slowly, he looked around trying to see if he could find the ghost from where he was sitting. Trying to be subtle Danny put his hands on the back of his chair twisting his body before turning the other way, then just to make sure it was clear he was stretching he pushed his shoulders back and rolled his head. Nothing in the room as far as he could see and this class didn't have windows.

Deciding to just relax and wait until he heard either screaming or crashing sounds, he sat up straight in his chair to focused his hearing on his surroundings, scratching of pencils, silent tapping noise to his left, a buzz on his right, the squeak of the marker the teacher was using, but nothing else. If someone had gotten into the school they were keeping quiet, possibly even invisible. No foot steps aside from the person behind him jumping her leg under her desk.

Listening wasn't getting him anywhere so Danny tried something else, Ember had called it echo location because that's what she used, focusing on the soft thrumming of power in his chest he coaxed it into a more pliable state, trying to silence its usual ghostly noise. It took some time but he managed to make it calmer, and quieter somehow and gently pushed it outward. It was something Ember had been trying to teach him but since an Ice Core wasn't her style, she tried to teach him using her own Sound Core and finding some sort of medium between the 2. It took a lot more energy or him to do then it did her but it still worked, when he did it right.

After about a minute of nothing ghostly happening he gave up, it was possible that some ghost was just passing by and got close enough for him to sense it but that's it. Dropping his focus from anything related to his dead half, their teacher was explaining the homework to them as it was passed out. Glancing at the clock, he had 20 mins left of class, he could totally finish his homework in that time.

Now if only telling his friends what had happened would be that easy.


	5. New old powers

The last bell finally rang for lunch and for once Danny really didn't want to go. He had completely botched it this morning when he mentions he had been caught up in an alley. They weren't supposed to know! It hadn't been the first time he was caught in his human form and it won't be his last but what was he supposed to do? Sneak into his house through the front door?

Heaving a sigh the ghost boy walked into the cafeteria to sit in their usual spot. His class was the closest to the lunch room so he usually got their first. Pulling out his home lunch, yes he ate home lunch now, he waited for the inevitable.

Danny was looking at his homework when his friends sat down across from him with their own food, taking a few bites before speaking.

“So. You can't run this time. What happened?” Sam stared at Danny hard as she spoke.

In turn he put his homework away, he wasn't getting any more of it done right now, “I told you what happened, your going to need to be more specific.”

Tucker bit into his burger, “From now on this topic will spoken in sports terms.”

All 3 of them agreed before Sam spoke again, “Danny, what happened at Tennis practice? And when?”

Tucker swallows, “Yeah, start from the beginning again, last time we spoke it was a bit unclear.”

“I told you the guy was all mad and yelling at me. No one else was around. He was talking about picking a fight with me but he backed off when I picked up my racket.”

“Ok,” Sam spoke slowly, “Then what happened when you went home? You said Jazz freaked out and stormed after you like she had a weapon.”

Danny nodded, “Yeah, I was practicing my swing in my room when Jazz banged on the door telling me to quit it or I could break something, I had to explain to her what happened and she left me alone.”

Tucker was taking notes on his personal PDA before showing it to Danny with a smile, “Dude look at this!”

Danny took it reading over what he had wrote before smiling, it was all part of their act, too many close calls in the past have given them tons of time to practice acting like they were normal but really they were hiding everything. Tucker was showing him something “funny” on his PDA but what Danny saw was all the information he had gotten from their conversation.

-Mugged  
-Used a new ghost power  
-Jazz knows  
-Didn’t call for help. Again.  
-We had no clue

Danny handed it back, “Nice, I bet it was better in person.”

Sam frowned, no doubt seeing this for his way of trying to get out of it. “You’ll show us what you were practicing right?”

Sighing out a “Yeah, I can show you now if you want.” Danny stood to throw out his trash, his friends following behind, “It's not really that big of a deal though.”

Sam pushed the door open to the fenced area behind the school, “That's what you think, but Danny you never think of yourself.”

Said teen huffed before following her outside, “Sure I do.”

“Name one time.” Tucker piped in.

“Uuhhhh…….. that time I was helping Paulina even though you guys told me to stay away from her.”

Sam looked unconvinced “You mean when you tried dating Paulina because she showed some interest in you and it turns out she was under influence of a ghost?”

“Hey! I helped get the ghost out!”

They had made it to the edge of the fence where they could see everything around them, no one could sneak up to eavesdrop if they could see everything from all sides.

“Uh-huh and we told you it was fishy for your own safety.” Sam crossed her arms

“But I was thinking of myself! That has to count!”

“We’re talking about your safety Danny! You know living? Not dying anymore? Making sure you don't get hurt?!”

Tucker held up both his hands to calm them, “Wow chill guys. Technically Danny isn't wrong. But Sam is right, bro you don't really consider your own health first when it comes to ghost fighting. You just plow in and sometimes try not to die.”

Danny huffed out a cold breath at them, crossing his arms before responding, “Hey, I’m doing a swell job at not dying.”

Sam poked his chest gently, “Yeah, yeah, ice breath. Show us this new move now.”

Tucker stood next to Sam waiting for what was to come next. Exasperated Danny decided to finally humor them and took a moment to concentrate, think of something that makes him mad, think of things that piss him off or just plain irritate him, things that frustrate him, and making them go away.

Tucker yelped loudly before falling over on his butt, Sam gasped silently next to him moving her hands up a little in defence.

“There happy?” Danny let go of all those pent up feelings as fast as he had built them up, it wouldn't be a good idea to hang onto them.

“Dude! I remember you doing that sometimes when you first got your powers I thought it was just temporary?! Or like a mistake!” Tucker stood quickly from the floor.

Sam looked at Tucker in confusion, “You do?”

Danny’s silent ‘Same’ conveyed his confusion as Tucker barreled through an explication, “You know! Like every time someone made you mad or-OH! Better example you remember when Sam kissed Dash during Ambers first attack?”

Sam cringes hard while making gagging noises and gestures “Ugh! Don't remind me!”

Danny smiles at her expense “Hey, you were the one trying to help me while simultaneously breaking my heart.”

Sam waves a hand in his face “You know it wasn't like that! Besides I thought you forgave me for that!”

Tucker throws his hands in the air “That's not the point! You remember his eyes turned all glowing and green and we really-ok I really wanted to stay away from him and he was super pissed off?!”

They both nod at him in slow confusion before Sam’s eyes widen “Oh! Yeah I remember you used to do it all the time but at one point you just stopped doing it.”

Danny shrugs “I'm still not sure what your talking about.”

“You get mad to use this so called “new move” right?” Danny nods “Then you have actually had this for a while, but the last time you were this upset was so long ago that we forgot about it. Have you really never noticed?” Tucker folds his arms.

“Not really, do I just… I don't know, do my eyes change when I do that?”

Sam leans on the fence “Do what? Get mad?”

“Yeah.”

Tucker looks to Sam while she looks at Danny “You know, not every time. Just when your emotions get the best of you. I've noticed that you've been keeping a cool head for a while.”

Sam nods in agreement “Yeah, really we all have. Things changed a lot the past few years. We aren't picked on anymore,” she held up a finger as she counted off “Ghost’s haven't been as much of a problem as they used to, our parents aren't as bad as they used to be as far as I can tell, we are passing school, we actually CAN get a full night's sleep now, even if we don't actually do it.” She puts her hands down once more “It's almost like we’re normal teens again, you know, aside from the odd ghost hunt out.”

“True,” Danny agrees “it used to be so crazy and things were happening every other day it felt like I could fill 3 seasons of episodes with all of my life. Too bad it wouldn't have that much of an exciting ending.”

Tucker bursts into laughter at this “Don't be dramatic man! Even if your life was that exciting it would still be considered fiction! Or maybe a really old cartoon that people don't remember half the time!”

Sam smiles at that “Sure they would remember! It would be a great story to tell! You would just have to worry about whether or not they try to make a reboot of it and completely screw it up and then all the people who watched and loved the old version would get upset at the half rate crap they were showing the new generation.”

Danny nods “Happens to the best of them.”

The bell rings at this point signalling that classes will start in a few minutes. The group says bye as they all walk their separate ways to class.


	6. Walk home

The day ends with little to nothing exciting happening, no ghost alerts, no embarrassing parents, nothing weird has happened all day.

Except the one time his ghost sense had gone off during class.

Danny caught up with Sam and Tucker just outside of the building, they were walking home today and since they all lived relatively close together it was a convenient way to talk after school.

“So,” Tucker starts, “Have your parents done anything new?”

Danny smiles, “Yeah actually, they are making something for Jazz before she goes. It's supposed to be an enhanced version of the ghost shield but it can be kept up 24/7 and it's not visible to the eye.”

Sam gives him a look of concern, “Won't that make your life harder?”

He shrugs, “Maybe, but for now it's a good gift since she is leaving. There might not even be any ghosts where she is going.”

Tucker pulls out his old PDA, “Last I checked the only places with high ghost activity were mostly supernatural. Including here.”

Sam smiles fondly at her boy friend, “You still have that thing?”

Tucker blushes and runs a hand over his neck, “Hey, can't diss the classics. I have more modern tech but I just couldn't let this one go.”

Sam kisses his cheek before walking down a street toward her house, “It’s fine Tuck, it makes you quirky! See you tomorrow guys!”

The boys wave at her as she takes a different road continuing forward.

“You 2 have really mellowed out, huh?” Danny nudges his shoulder.

Tucker laughs, “YOU’RE saying that about US! Dude, I can't even begin to explain the chill you seem to have. Maybe it wouldn't be this way if the ‘incident’ hadn’t happened but I for one am glad things happened the way they did.”

Danny takes a moment to think about this before nodding, “Yeah but think about it, if I hadn't gone into the portal my parents wouldn't be ghost hunters.”

Tucker nods, “You’re probably right, but then we wouldn't know Sam now would we?”

Danny laughs, “I think we would have known her anyway. Besides it's not like it ever happened!”

Tucker pokes him in the chest, “Boom. See! It never happened! But at the same time, it has happened! You went in, we know Sam, your parents are ghost hunters! It doesn't matter what could have happened because it didn't. Now I gotta get home, see you tomorrow dude.”

They share a fist bump as Tucker crosses the street, but Danny has to admit, his friend is right. Even if the timelines have been changed before, this is the one he is living in, and he wouldn't trade it for anything.


	7. The zones

Danny was home alone for the day, both his parents were out doing whatever it was they did and Jazz was hanging out with some of her friends before she left.  
Dropping his bag next to his bed, the teen jogs down to the basement to check if the ghost shield is on, usually it's not but it's safer to check. Looking around the whole lab he notes that it's a little messier than usual before going to the computers. Everything seemed normal enough and the shield was indeed turned off.

“They really need to work on that.” He muttered to himself.

He’s about to leave when his ghost sense goes off again, the cold whips of air pulling a gasp from him.

Danny tenses as he pulls on his core to change him, shouting “Ugh, who’s there?!”

He waits a few moments before relaxing and standing up again, “That’s the second time today. What-?”

He’s unprepared to get thrown onto the floor from behind, a black mass settling around him as he struggles for a moment before laughing, “Haha! Sh-shadow what WHAT are you Haha! Doing?!”

Johnny steps through the wall with a smile on his face, “Chill dude, he misses ya, is all.”

Danny continues to laugh as the black shadow tickles him, unrelenting in its attack, “O-ok! Ok! Stop! Haha! I'm gonna die!”

Shadow slips off of him at Johnny’s command, staying close by instead of retreating to its hiding place.

With a huff the ghost teen stands up and brushes off some fake dust, “So what bring you guys down here? I thought you and Kitty took a trip to Paris?”

He receives a sigh from the man across from him, “That’s the problem dude. We did, but when we finally got back to the ghost zone through one of those back doors, ghosts were screaming in the other direction.”

Danny turns a confused look at him, “What do you mean?”

“You know how the Ghost zone goes on forever?”

Danny nods.

“Well, we had apparently gone through a pretty deep hole, you never know where you are going to come out with those things, but all of these ghosts were screaming and running away from on of the edge zones.”

Danny takes a moment to think before voicing his question, “Which zone?”  
Johnny takes a moment to think, “Uh, I think Skulkers Island? I'm not sure what zone that is.”

Danny nods, “He did keep his Island closer to the edge of the safe zone than most. I'm surprised there was a door out that far, most of them have been destroyed past the safe zone and even some by Skulker himself.”

The ghost teen scratches his head as silence settles over them, “Did you catch any of the ghosts say anything aside from the regular haunting banter?”

The older man nods, “Yeah,” then he folds his arms, “Something like, ‘The safe zone is shrinking’, ‘It’s coming’, ‘I knew it was too good to be true’, and I think one said, ‘The zones are no more’? I don't know. There was a tone of chaos and I haven't seen that many ghosts panic in a few decades.”

Shadow shivers next to Danny before another figure slips through the wall, “Johnny~! You found him!”

Johnny smiles, “Hey, Kitten. I was just finishing telling the ghost kid what happened.”

Said teen waves at their new visitor before being pulled into a hug, “Oh, Danny! It so good to see you.”

He hugs her back as he responds, “Yeah, it's been a while. How was Paris?”

She pulls back, holding him at arm's length, “It was so romantic! We had to possess a few people, but no one was hurt! We had the most romantic dinner at the top of the Eiffel Tower, visited so many monuments! My favorite part was floating around in a boat on a river full of flower petals.” She heaves a dreamy smile, “Thank you so much for letting us out Danny, we really owe you one!”

Danny for his part blushes in embarrassment, “Yeah, it was the least I could do after punching you in the face.”

She smiles, “No harm done. You have a mean punch and great reflexes! Now if only Johnny moved like that.”

Johnny blushes a dark shade of gray before shouting, “Hey! I have great reflexes!”

Kitty and Danny laugh and Dark Shadow makes some sort of hissing sound, “Sure you do honey.”

She walks over to him and kisses him while Shadow makes a gagging gesture next to Danny who snickers.

Johnny rests his hands on the woman's hips before looking at the ghost teen once more, “Anyway, we just wanted you to know. Don't know if it'll do ya any good.”

“Thanks Johnny, Kitty. I'll have to look into it at some point. For now you 2 should stay away from the edges of the safe zone and keep me posted.”

They both nod before walking to the portal and disappearing, Shadow hot on their heels.

Walking upstairs quickly, Danny pulls out his phone and calls Ember. She might know something about what's happening in the ghost zone.

It rings once before she answers, “Sup Baby-pop? You don't generally call unless it's urgent.”

The ghost teen changes back out of his ghost form before he gets into view of any windows, “Yeah, listen, my parents are gone and I need to talk to you. Preferably now.”

He can hear the eye roll, “Wow, slow down there kid. Now is pretty demanding when I'm across town.”

“Huuuuuuuuh, yeah I know but this is important. Like a meteor hitting the earth important.” He flops on the couch.

She laughs, “Right, a meteor. I'm headed your way baby-pop. Just sit tight and jam out to my new mix. I uploaded it to our shared music file.”

Danny smirks, putting as much sarcasm in his voice as possible, “Aw, you aren't trying to take over Amity by hypnotizing me again are you?”

She makes a weird snort noise, “You wish. You'll find I have plenty of peaceful followers all over the world from sharing my music over a different set of waves. The internet is a great invention I wish we had had way back when.”

Danny smiles sadly, “Yeah. See you in a bit.”

She gets out a bubbly ‘Bye, kid.’ Before they hang up.

Deciding to take her advice he pulls out a set of headphones and listens to the music with a ‘new’ marked next to it while thinking. Ember couldn't remember much from when she was alive, like most ghosts couldn't, they were either too old and forgot, forced themselves to forget, or the memories just didn't transfer over after they went. Those who did remember were mostly resentful or so mourn stricken they couldn't forget even if they wanted.

Danny jumps at a particularly loud guitar rift before settling. Kitty had mentioned having a cat when she was alive at one point, a small orange one, she said its eyes were green but looked lost when he had asked her what it was like, Ember talked a lot about how technology was advancing really fast and that she love it since it was new. Those medieval people and the dragons! If only he could have seen those alive, talk about ancient, and the yeti’s don't remember where they came from either.

He finishes Embers new album just as she comes in through the ceiling, “Hey Em. I really like your new album! It's different from your other ones.”

She slides in next to him with a grin, “Isn't it? I was out in a thunderstorm but instead of your usual sad feelings associated with rain, I was pumped! Think I got hit once though, that was how I came up with that loud rift.”

Danny gives her a horrified look, “Ghosts can fry too you know.”

She laughs at his face before poking his arm, “Weeellll, which was your favorite?! I'm still thinking of an album cover and I don't have a name for the last 2 songs.”  
He gives a silent nod of understanding, “Naming things is hard, sometimes you have it and others you don't. I liked your opening song and the one about the stars.”

Ember sets her guitar next to her as she speaks, “You always did want to go space ward.” She blinks before breaking out into a wicked grin, “Danny you're a genius.”

Said teen tilts his head in confusion, “I… what now?”

She pulls out her new device, made by Technus, before showing him, “Baby-pop, its name is Space Ward!”

He smiles at her before sobering up a little, “I'm glad you found a name, now sorry to be a killjoy but I have some urgent questions for you.”

Pocketing her phone she makes a gesture for him to continue, he takes his time explaining everything he heard from the Love Duo and voicing his own concerns, “I don't know what it is, I was hoping you could ask Skulker since he is closer to the sightings?”

She takes a moment to consider before nodding slowly, “I can see what I can do, I don't make any promises since him and I just got off of the rocky shelf. He hated me before and just when we started warming up to each other he blew his head at the fact we hang out.” She makes a veuge gesture between them.

Danny grimaces, “Sorry, I know you 2 were trying for a ‘friend’ kind of thing.”

She shakes her head, “It's fine. We were trying to be civil because we work in close corters. Warden leaves me alone when I'm near Skulkers Island and he doesn't mind my music.”

He nods before standing with her, “Alright, let me know if you find anything. I'm going to have to go into the ghost zone and gather information too.”

She lets him pull her up, “Need an escort? Better to fly in 2s.”

He takes a moment to consider this, with the possible rise in danger in the ghost zone he wouldn't let his friends come, he would probably tell them he was leaving but he didn't want them in harm's way.  
“An escort would be great.”

She nods pickin up her guitar and messing up his hair more, “Your getting tall ghost boy. I'll meet you at the doors. If I'm not there give me a holler.”

With that she disappears to the basement and presumably through the portal. If only he had that much confidence in his normal life.


	8. Moving House

Danny floats slowly through the green glow of the portal, checking to see if Amber happens to be waiting on the other side. Sam and Tucker had been less than pleased with him going into the portal especially when they found out he was going with the rock queen herself, they still don’t trust most of his ‘new’ Ghost friends since most of them have attacked him at least once but they just don’t understand.

Sure enough she’s floating just inside the ghost zone picking out a small soft tune, no doubt worried about the Warden.

Floating the rest of the way through he gives a wave, “Hey Em.”

She moves her head a little faster than usual, signalling he had startled her, before putting the guitar on her back. “Sup kid, you ready to rock?”

“Yeah, did you happen to get ahold of Skulker?”

Her happy look fades slightly with his question, but he doesn’t have to ask what’s wrong before he gets an answer, “Yup. Wasn’t happy to hear from me but he was willing to answer my questions, even if they were veuge.”

Danny nods before asking, “What did he tell you?”

Ember waves a hand in a ‘Follow me’ fashion as she starts floating away, “He said that there was an increase in activity by his Island, including the Warden, and while he was glad his hunting was more rewarding than normal he had also noticed the abyss getting closer as well, he told me that at first he had just assumed his Island was moving in that direction but when he went to check, it wasn’t moving.”

The ghost teen stops his companions rant with a question, “How would he know if it was moving or not?”

She looks at him with a perplexed look before turning forward again, “The ghost zone has a pull, it’s like an internal homing beacon constantly telling you where you are. The more time you spend in it, the easier it is to feel, that’s how I always know where your door is.”

He nods his understanding when she looks to see if he understood.

She continues, “It’s possible for a new ghost, such as yourself, to feel the pull if you focus on it hard enough, weaker ghosts often will never get a full grasp on how to navigate or even feel that pull while some of the more powerful ghosts have always been able to feel it. It took me years to understand what I was feeling and why it was important.”

Danny speaks up again with another question, “What does it feel like?”

He can almost feel her trying to convey the answer to his question through body alone as she tries to gather her thoughts.

“It’s like… you know when the lights are all off in a room but you know exactly where everything is?”

He flies a little faster to look at her face, “Yeah?”

She purses her lips, “Well… it’s kinda like that but not. Ugh, that was a bad example uhhh….. how about…… when your lost in a new place but you just know, like deep down in your soul that the way you are walking is the wrong way? But when you turn around to go back your even more confused because that’s not right either?”

He’s felt that plenty of times, sometimes when he flies too high and can’t see the ground it’s like that. “So it feels like you’re lost? Then how do you know how to get around?”

She shakes her head, “You don’t but you do. For example I’m taking you to Skulkers Island or where it should be, but a lot of ghosts don’t like their homes being well known so they will often move it so that way it’s harder to find. There’s a legend about this frozen land full of white furry beasts that have a map of the ghost zone, and it always knows where everything is, no matter how often you move something. Like a living current time map.”

The halfa smirks at that, it’s not a legend and he’s been allowed to use that map before.

She continues unaware of his inner musings, “Anyway, the feeling can be muddy and hard to read or feel most of the time but it’s helpful.” 

Getting back to the topic at hand he can only put a pin in her words and hope it helps him feel whatever pull the ghost zone seems to have. It would be great if he didn’t have to rely on a map or ask for directions all the time.

The don’t get a chance to say much more let alone breath when Warden stops them in their tracks, “HEY! Going past a roadblock is considered trespassing, disturbing the peace, and resisting the law!”

They both freeze as the man in white floats in front of them, confused and a little afraid of what’s about to happen.

Danny speaks fast, “W-wait we didn’t know, we were just going to Skulker’s Island to talk to him! And we didn’t even see a roadblock!”

The man scowls at them, “You’re breaking the law whether you know it or not.” He pulls out his ticket book and fishes for a pen in his pocket.

Ember seems to panic more and Danny has to think of a way out of this before something bad happens, “Hold on Warden, will you at least show us where the roadblock is and tell us why we can’t see Skulker? Please?” He adds that last one in hastily.

The man narrows his eyes before pointing to a guard who seems to come out of nowhere, “That man saw you pass the guard. This area is restricted territory and the roadblock is behind him.”

Sure enough, when they look there is a large wall of guards and flashing lights down below them, it was enough out of the way to be easily missed with their height. The Warden starts putting his pen to the paper.

“So you’re just going to write us up even though you made this roadblock yesterday?” It was a long shot but they might be able to get out of this.

Warden looks him deep in the eyes as he hisses his next words, “Are you talking back to an enforcer of the law.”

It’s not a question and if Danny messes up, there’s no way out of this, “No sir. I was just wondering if you would at least allow us the chance to move Embers home since she was in the human world with me when the barrier was put up?”

He’s banking on the limited knowledge he has and hopes it’s enough. Ghosts have territories or places they reside that they keep a close eye on. If anything goes in or out without their say the Warden allows them the ability to deal with it as they please as long as it’s in their own space. That was why when Skulker kidnapped him and Vallery he didn’t do anything. Keeping a ghost from their home or territory was taboo, Box ghost told him that and he could only hope that the man had been correct and wasn’t lying.

Warden seems to ooze disdain and hate as he turns his attention to the blue haired girl, “Is that right?”

She nods slowly gripping the neck of her guitar a little harder than was probably healthy as the man fixes his eyes on her.

“And what, pray tell, is it doing near Skulkers Island?”

Danny wants to speak for her but knows that if he does that it would get them both arrested for life. She shakes her head just a little before opening her mouth, “Skulker and I have been trying to get along. He likes listening to my music….” she hesitates here for just a moment before continuing, “and I needed a safe place to park my house.”

The silence after that is long and thick, it’s almost suffocating, like trying to breath at the top of a mountain without preparation. The thin air somehow making you feel like your breathing in something too heavy for your lungs.

He leans forward, his glare getting more intense as he scrutinizes both of them. Danny can feel the itch to attack the guy just under his skin, and out of the corner of his eye he can see Ember’s grip bending the metal of her guitar ever so slightly as they both try and keep their ghostly instincts at bay.

Finally the man stands up straight and speaks, “Symbiotic Mutualism. Common around ghosts of similar power. I was unaware you and Skulker were trying for companinization.”

The pressing atmosphere eases just a little as the man speaks, they might just be able to get out of this.

“You have 1 hour to move your abode and it must be past this exact spot.” He flicks out a pocket watch while his ticket pad and pen disappear into his pocket. “Your time started 12 seconds ago.”

Danny takes the words for what they are and grabs Embers wrist quickly before shooting past the white clad man, “THANK YOU SIR! YOU’RE TOO KIND!”

He doesn’t wait for a response as the quickly get a safe distance away before stopping.

“Holy crap, Baby-pop! How did you do that?! I thought we would be behind bars any second!”

Heaving a heavy breath of relief, it takes him a moment to decide how to answer her question, “Honestly, I had no idea what I was doing. I was just hoping that my bull-shittery would be enough to work on the Warden like it works on my teachers.”

She smiles wide and wicked at him, seeming to finally lose all of that stress from earlier, “Well, you got us about an hour to get in and out before he will press charges against us we should put it to good use.”

He nods before addressing their new problem, “What so we do about the deal?”

She twirls around before looking smug, “I do actually have my house near Skulker’s Island.”

He feels his jaw drop momentarily before speaking, “Wait, I thought you were a wandering ghost?”

She gives him a firm nod and a pat on the shoulder, “That’s right.”

Danny can feel his muscles tightening from the earlier stress and decides it can be taken care of later, “I thought wandering ghosts didn’t have territories or homes?”

She scoffs at him as she drags him away, “Well, you’re not entirely wrong but you're definitely not right either. See wandering ghosts can have homes, they just have something that’s easy to move. Have you seen Johnny’s crib?”

He can barely remember it since it was only in passing but somewhere a while back he had passed a trailer while Kitty was sitting on the roof. That must have been it then. “Yeah, but I thought he was a stationary ghost?”

Ember shakes her head, “Nope! He’s a wandering ghost like me. Kitty is a tenacious ghost which is why she has attachment issues.”

That makes a surprising amount of sense, but now it brings up another question, “I thought there were only 3 types of ghosts?”

She gives him a questioning look and he elaborates, “Wandering ghosts, stationary ghosts, and haunting ghosts.”

Danny watches as her face turns to an amused smile, “You know so little for how experienced you are. Ok, ghost lesson 101 Baby-pop; 1: There are thousands if not millions of different descriptions for ghosts just like there are powers. 2: there are some that are more common than others. Some of the more used ones are stationary, wandering, haunting, protecting, and elemental ghosts. These are called common ghosts and trust me when I tell you that’s not all of them. I can see the confusion on your face but let me finish. There are multiple levels of ghost types, they go from common to uncommon then rare, legendary, mythical and the last one is unclassified. Unclassified it the category for titles that don’t have a place on the scale yet. Now before you ask, Halfa has been classified as mythical.”

Danny feels his blood pool in his cheeks but it’s not the usual warm of his human half, instead it’s cold. Sam told him once that he started blushing blue after his ice core became active.

“There is another way to classify ghosts besides their status though and that’s power. Obviously. That one goes Fragile, Weak, Deficient, Average, Strong, Dominant, Expert and Mastery. That’s all of the ranks in power though nothing too complicated.”

Danny gets a sudden thought, “Is that why Skulker went from calling me fragile to weak?”

The blue haired teens responding laugh would almost be worth hearing if it wasn’t at his expense, “Haha! Yeah probably! Hahahahaha oh my gosh I can’t! Hahaha!”

When she finally gets to a giggling fit he asks another question, “Then is whelp an important thing too? Or was that just an insult?”

Still giggling she responds, “Hee hee both. I’m sure you know whelp means puppy?”

He nods, after the 3rd time of being called it way in the beginning he had googled it just to make sure he actually knew what he was being called.

“Well it terms of ghost age we call each other something different. Generally it coincides with the area you ‘grow up in’,” She makes quotes with her fingers, “and personal lingo. I call you baby-pop as a personal flare from baby, the most used term. Some areas use pup, or calf, or weeone, and uh… infant. It’s not defined but he defiantly uses it as an insult.” She grins that wicked smile back at him once more as something comes into view.

It’s round almost like a snail's shell on its side, a light blue door on the flat of it. The house itself is a purple color, not overly dark but definitely not a pastel. It looks to be 2 levels with a round disk serving as a surround deck. The roof is black and as they get closer he notices a few little things too, like names next to the windows written in various colors of spray paint, speakers sitting on the deck and strange graffiti on most the rest of it.

He look in awe as she lands on the deck, “This is yours?”

She smiles fondly at the house, “Yup. Now stop looking so gobsmacked and come in for a second. I need to grab something before we haul this thing out of here.”

Landing softly he takes a hesitant step behind her before remembering that she had invited him in. It was ridiculous that he felt like a trespasser when he had her permission to be here, but honestly he’s never been inside of a ghost’s home, forget about the Yeti’s since they offered him his own room, this was the first time he was welcomed.

“Plop down on the bean bag or something while I go upstairs.” She flicks her hand to the black plush looking very furry thing in the front room before heading up the steps.

Taking her advice he sits on the bean bag and is almost engulfed by the thing, it’s surprisingly soft and after shifting around slightly he finds that getting up might be a problem later. He decides not to look around the rest of the room after finding a ton of speakers and graffiti looking art everywhere, no need to snoop when he has better thing to think about.

Skulker probably moved his Island last night if what Ember said was true, and with the Warden on their heels it would take too long to try and look for him behind the line they supposedly set. Speaking of which, was that because of the zone problem he was told about? If so this might warrant a trip to Clockwork if he has to go extreme.

Ember drops through the floor to land in front of him while holding some straps in her arms, “Ok kid. I’m gunna need to ask you for some help with this so we can move faster.”

Danny nods his head while trying to push himself up, “Ok just-UGH! Tell me what to do.” He slips a little closer to the floor making his life harder.

The blue haired rocker laughs before holding out a hand, “You do remember you can fly right? Or even phase through the bag?”

He takes her hand in embarrassment blushing blue as he is pulled up, “Y-yeah! Totally remembered that. Just uh, wanted to try it the normal way?” It’s said as a question.

She must decide to save the teasing for later as she takes a harness and puts it on his shoulders, “Here, it just clips around your front like a hiking backpack. Easy right?”

He lets her move his arms around before clicking the buckle in place himself as she puts an identical one on, he can see that the back has a metal ring poking out and assumes it’s for the cables on the floor.

“So, what are we doing?” He finally asks.

She leads him out the door with the cables in her arms before handing one to him, “We are moving my house remember? Hook this into the ring on my back would ya?”

He takes it and does as he’s asked while speaking, “And this requires hiking gear?”

He turns around at her command listening as she talks behind him, “Not hiking gear, that stuff would be overkill. No, this is just going to make it easier on us. I found pushing makes it so I can’t see what’s in front of me and pulling with my hands is too much strain. There, now follow me with those cords and we can get going.”

Picking up the cooled up cord from the floor, they float to the midway point of the house, “Do you want to take point or go down below?” She asks in an almost bored tone.

Danny shrugs, “Either is fine.”

She nods and clips his cord to the ring on the house before flying underneath the surrounding platform and doing the same with her own.

He waits just off of the ground for her to give him some sort of instructions to follow as she places her guitar on an empty rack on the house.

Moving slowly both of them fly in the direction of the roadblock till the cords are taught, “Alright Baby-pop! This is where things can get tricky. Since there isn’t gravity here we can tip the house over itself and I would rather avoid that so you'll have to keep up with me!”

He gives her a moc offended look, “Don’t you mean that the other way around? I could race circles around you!”

She punches him in the shoulder before pushing forward, “Oh, stuff it! We both know I’m faster!”

He joins her shortly after, rubbing his arm, “Are not! I catch you all the time!”

“That’s because I let you!” She gives him a wink while they pull.

It’s not overly strenuous, it’s kind of like pulling a stroller with a heavy child in it, not really much of a workout for ghosts with powers to destroy cities. They stay in silence for the trip back, it’s much slower than when they raced in and Danny could hardly remember getting this far away in such a short amount of time. He just hopes that the peace will last a little while longer.


	9. A phone call

Danny’s family all arrive home for a late dinner, his parents have some kid of goo on them and Jazz has just made sure she finished making her brothers and her own before they could get near it.

“So, Danny boy!” His father starts off in his loud voice, “How's the first day of school?!”

Jazz looks at him with a slightly horrified if not completely scandalized look, but Danny kicks her leg under the table before she can start.

“Honey, his first day of this year was last week.” His mother chimes in.

The topic of their evening sat quietly with a small sink in mood, it wasn't unusual for them to forget where he was in school but it wasn't any less painful.

Jazz opens her mouth and once again receives a kick, “OW!”

Both of their parents turn around at her sudden shout and she looks ready to burn a hole in Danny’s leg as he speaks, “Actually, I've been in school for 2 weeks. Today is Thursday.”

Both of his parents look a little lost before his father laughs, “Boy does time fly! Jazzy how's finding housing?”

His wife once more pipes in, “At the moment she is saving up money to move in with a friend remember? We talked about this on Monday.”

Danny feels a small lump in his throat, it's not unusual for his parents to remember almost everything Jazz has told them, she was their starkid after all.

“Yes, I'm looking online with my friend and corresponding with her for the move! At the moment we might have to stay on campus if we can find any places and if that's a no go she has some connections that might get us something cheaper.” Jazz speaks in between bites, trying to be as polite as possible.

Danny doesn't participate, he is happy for his sister sure, but he doesn't want her to leave. Despite their differences they started getting along well over the last few years. He doesn't really blame his parents for paying more attention to her, she was everything they wanted in a child. They mention it a lot;

“You're so smart Jazz, you could go anywhere you want! So why settle for such a small place?” His mother asks.

Smart.

His father smiles too, “Yeah, you could get great scholarships at much bigger places! Get better paying jobs in the future that way!”

Has potential.

“I'm surprised you haven't been on any dates either, you could get such a wonderful young man, you wouldn't even need to wear make-up.” His mother.

Pretty.

His dad jerks back a little, “Wow, slow down now! She doesn't need to date till she is out of school! Then she might want to wait a while!”

Jazz smiles, “Oh dad, I know you want me to wait but I'm entering into adulthood, and you know how much I would love children. But for now I want to focus on my studies as a psychiatrist as well as combat and world studies, I'm planning on broadening out my field.”

She would make a great mom.

Shaking his head a little, Danny excuses himself from the table quietly, he receives reflexive ‘good night Danny’ from both of his parents and Jazz’s concerned, ‘night.’

He walks to the stairs before looking over his shoulder to make sure none of them will see him float up to his room, honestly why walk when you can fly?

He flops onto his bad and thinks about the things he saw in the ghost zone the night before.

Walker had made a perimeter around the ghost zone, the whole section. To top it off he had to leave before he could ask Skulker any questions because a tight curfew was introduced: visitors gone by the time the zone darkened. Why would they create such a tight security routine?

Sitting up he pulls out his phone and calls Kitty, she’s more likely to answer her phone.

“Hello?” Her voice comes through softly.

He grins despite himself, “Hey, Kitty! It’s Danny.”

Her voice picks up, “Oh hey, Danny! What’s up?”

He leans back on his pillows, “Nothing really. Heard anything new about the zone edge?”

He hears some rustling noises before she speaks again, “Yeah, I did actually. Apparently Walker is trying to keep it under wraps with a huge perimeter around the zone. Tons of ghosts are starting to fight over territory because of it! I didn’t even know he had that many guys.”

He laughs at her exasperated tone, “Haha, yeah! I had to help Ember move house because of Walker last night. Have you heard from her?”

He hears a soft rustle and can imagine her shaking her head, “No, it’s been a while since she came by. Haven’t gotten a text either, but I listened to her new album so I know she is doing ok.”

“Yeah, I listened to it too. It’s pretty good isn’t it?”

“It really is! Hey, you doing ok kid?”

He shifts in his spot a little at her question, “Yeah, I’m good. Why do you ask?”

She hesitates before speaking slowly, “You don’t usually call me first unless you’re not feeling good. Johnny's been playing games on his phone and didn’t yell out that you had called. Did something happen?”

“I-“ he looks down at his shirt and starts playing with a frey in the material, “Yeah, something happened.”

She stays silent, waiting for him to continue, he sighs, “It’s just my parents that’s all.”

“Danny.” She sounds concerned and he hates how he makes her worry.

“They just… they don’t notice my life. Like ever. They hunt me down half the time and the other half, it’s like I don’t exist.” He leans forward and hugs his legs.

“Have you ever thought about telling them?” She asks it softly, like she is afraid of scaring him.

“I thought about it but what part of ‘When I get my hands on that ghost kid, I’m going to rip him apart molecule by molecule’ makes it sound like they would listen?”

She giggles a little at his impression of his dad but sobers up almost instantly, “But would they actually do that?”

He stays silent, deciding not to answer that question.

“Danny, if they would actually hurt you for something like this you need to leave. Have they ever actually hurt you?” Her concern is almost bordering panic now.

“No! No. They haven’t hurt me… yet.” He tilts his head as he tries to think, “At least not that I can remember…”

She stays painfully silent on the other side of the phone, he can faintly pick up Johnny in the background asking her if something is wrong.

Finally she says, “If they ever hurt you, I WILL haunt them.”

He smiles sadly at her comment, “They would have to catch me first.”

Kitty takes in a sharp breath when Johnny pipes up, “Not that hard to do kid. It only takes once.”

He winces at those words. Tons of ghosts and guys in white had caught him, they just couldn’t keep a hold of him but they had a point. He had been lucky all those times, being able to get out either with help or his own powers and brain. He had caught plenty of ghosts himself and knew it only took once.

Kitty responds again, “If you ever need somewhere to go, our home is open to you. You’ve done a ton to help us and it’s the least we could do for you.”

Danny smiles, these people who he had beat up and trapped so many times before they came to an understanding. People he had hurt were being so nice to him, caring for some kid they hardly knew.

“Thanks guys. I’ll try to remember that.”

“Your welcome kid!” Comes through the speaker, a ring of both of their voices speaking at the same time.

“Shadow says he hopes you come by soon.” Johnny adds in.

“I’ll try. Hard with the new curfew.” He pulls a face.

“True.” One of them mutters, but he can’t tell which one, “Anyway, You're always welcome to call us kid. Do you want to keep talking or are you ready to try sleeping?”

The halfa looks at his clock, the display showing that it’s 12:50 AM.

“I think I’ll try sleep. Long day tomorrow. Thank you guys.”

Kitty speaks with a smile in her voice, “No problem. Sleep well Danny. You deserve it.”

He smiles, “Thanks. You too. Bye.”

With her parting words he hangs up the phone. His life really had changed in the last few years. If you had asked him at the age of 10 what he wanted to do or where he thought he was going to get, his answer would have been space. Now? He would probably keep his plans a secret and just live on with his life half in the ghost zone.


	10. Dani

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kind of a slow chapter.

Danny decided to walk to school, Jazz was leaving soon and his parents were hard to be around at 7 AM so he might as well get some practice. Walking at a decent pace he takes the time to think about his next plan for the new development in the ghost zone. Asking around hadn’t helped, gathering information wasn’t working, and unless Clockwork wanted to see him he wouldn’t be able to get to the clock tower.

Maybe he should try for Clockwork after school today, if all went well, they would meet up and Danny would find out that nothing serious was happening.

Stopping before a crosswalk he can’t help the scoff that comes out. Yeah, right. Nothing ever goes well when it comes to him, just slightly less sucky then it could be.

Watching the red hand turn green he starts to walk forward when a hand slips into his own and pulls back gently. He turns to protest only for a car to go whizzing past where he would have been if he wasn’t stopped.

“WHOA!” Jumping back, he stamps down his raising panic and calms his breathing.

“Dude! Watch where you’re going! SOMEONE SHOULD TAKE YOUR LICENCE AWAY!” A female voice shouts next to him.

Quickly looking to his left he sees the familiar black hair and beanie combination of his clone.

“Dani?”

She looks up at him with a pissed off look before slugging him in the arm, “What are you doing?! You could have died!”

Rubbing the back of his head sheepishly they start crossing the street again once they know it’s safe, “Look, I’m distracted ok? A lot has been going on.”

She scoffs, “I’ll say.” Looking around cautiously she leans closer to whisper, “Have you heard about what’s going on in the GZ?”

Danny’s face twists in confusion, “GZ? Is that what their calling the ghost zone now?”

She puffs out her cheeks before continuing, “I was trying to be subtle. Never know when the GIW will be around.”

He rolls his eyes, “Guys in white?”

“YES! Them, jeez it’s like you don’t even know how to be sneaky!” She shouts in his ear.

He leans away slightly, “Oh, calm down, they have been trying to get me for years and you think they could do it now?”

When her eyes turn to him with accusation he quickly cuts her off, “It only takes once. Yadda yadda yadda. Yes, I have heard about some things going on in the ‘GZ’.” He makes extremely exaggerated air quotes at the last word.

“So you know about the curfew and zone restrictions?” She asks in surprise.

He nods, “Yeah, had first hand experience with Walker about it too.”

She winces, “Ouch.”

“Yup, is that all you came out of the zone for? It’s unusual for you to wander around after everything that happened.”

She hesitates before nodding, “Yeah. Halfa’s don’t really have a place there. It’s also getting super crowded, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a pick up in outside ghost activity because of it. Are you going to let them through?”

Now it’s his turn to hesitate, he couldn’t really play favorites with this kind of thing, but really if they are being pushed out of their homes… “I don’t know. I usually only allow tame visits every so often as long as they return to the Ghost Zone but this sounds like it could be a permanent thing if I let it slip…”

They stay in silence as they pass the last street before the school.

She nudges him in the arm, “Mind if I stick around today? I’m not usually into school but who knows, I might learn something.”

Danny smiles as Tucker and Sam walk toward them, “Yeah, you can tag along. Just stay invisible alright? Not sure how else I would explain you coming with me.”

She nods before dashing off to hide.

“Sup, Danny?” Tucker high fives him.

Sam crosses her arms, “Was that Dani?”

“Sure was. She’s going to tag along with me today.”

The couple nod, “It’s been awhile since I’ve seen her. How is she doing on her own?”

Tucker puts an arm around his girlfriend, “Sam, I’m sure Dani is doing fine.”

The halfa nods, “She’s alright. Just bored I guess.”

The first bell rings for classes and the visible trio walk toward the school.

A soft voice speaks in his ear, “Hey, what classes do you have?”

Glancing to the side only to see air, he concludes its Dani even as he suppresses the urge to let out a puff of cold air.

Making sure to keep his voice quiet, “Astronomy, and literature are the only ones I care about today.”

“Why those two?” She asks from his other side, they were in the halls now so he assumed she was floating above everyone and trying to avoid getting bumped.

“You know why for Astronomy but in English we had our first ‘big’ assignment due and I’m worried about how I did.” It was harder to talk now with so many people around but luckily they had enhanced hearing.

“Oh cool, it’s too bad I can’t ask any questions during the classes, it would be so much easier if I could ask on my own.”

He smiles, “I could always ask for you. You would just have to write everything down and we would go from there.”

He feels a hand on his shoulder, “Thanks Danny!”

Laughing nervously as a few people look his way in confusion he ducks into his first class of the day.

By the time lunch rolls around Dani had gone quiet, he only knew she was there because his ghost sense kept trying to force cold air from his lungs and after about the fourth time of trying to suppressed it he gave up.

Joining Tucker and Sam at the table he finally asks his question, “Hey, what’s on your mind?”

Sam gave him a confused look from across the table while Tucker ignores it in favor of eating his food.

“Who are you- oh. Is she still here?” Sam points her fork randomly around him.

Danny stays quiet to see if his shadow will respond for herself.

“I’ve just been thinking.” She speaks normally now, somewhere between them. No one will really notice.

Sam nods and starts eating while Danny splits his food in half, “Here, eat something.”

The half he moves toward the edge of his plate disappears quickly while he eats at a much slower pace.

Tucker speaks up, “Is half of the half of the calories they usually give us really going to be enough for you two? Since you both have crazy metabolism and all?”

Sams nodding her head in agreement.

The halfa’s both respond at the same time, “We’ll just eat after school.”

Tucker is shaking his head, “Man, that can’t be healthy for you guys.”

“It really can’t be, have you ever thought of doing home lunch Danny? I know I ask you all the time but surely this year you can do it?” Sam interjects.

Said teen shakes his head, “Too much work. It’s easier just to eat breakfast, survive off of this and eat when I get home.”

Truth was, he had thought about it often, but with his parents hiding experiments in Tupperware and cooking food in beakers he couldn’t take the risk. He had thought about getting a mini fridge but with his ghost fighting and his parents lack of attention to him he couldn’t get the money or ask for one.

The couple give up at this point, assuming correctly that it’s a lost cause.

He feels the air shift next to his ear as the invisible girl whispers, “Hey, I have some questions for you.”

He nods to show he is listening while taking a sip from his water.

She continues in the same quiet tone, “What happens if the Ghost Zone disappears?”

Pausing at her question, he carefully sets down his water bottle to think about that, “I’m not sure. Maybe we should ask clockwork?”

Sam looks up at him, “Huh?”

He holds up a hand, “Sorry. Talking to Dani, she has some questions about today.”

She nods and goes back to talking with Tuck.

“Sounds like a good idea but who is Clockwork?”

“Someone I know. Maybe he’ll let me introduce you this time.”

She goes quiet again and he is content to leave her to think.

“Do we have a place?”

The question was so out of the blue he actually looks in the direction of her voice this time, he can almost feel her burning gaze even though the only thing he sees is the cheer squad giggling across the lunch room.

Slowly he asks, “What do you mean?”

He feels her piercing gaze leave him, “We aren’t alive. We aren’t dead. So what are we? I’m not even supposed to exist.”

Danny can feel the question eat at him, he had those same thoughts all the time but he never had anyone to ask. It was a wonder they didn’t share the same brain at this point with how similarly they thought.

Muttering he says, “We belong where we decide to make our place I guess.”

Dani stays quiet for the rest of lunch, since he couldn’t see her face he couldn’t gauge how she had taken his answer. Maybe that was the wrong thing to say, maybe it was for the best but he didn’t know the answer either. The only person who might be able to give them a solid idea was holed up in a mansion somewhere.

He lets out a bitter laugh when they separate from Sam and Tucker.

“What?” She asks from his shoulder.

“I was just thinking. The only other person who could relate to our problem has caused us both hell and back.” He scratches the back of his neck, “And he happens to have the most experience too. Ugh that’s awful.”

He hears her scoff loudly, and ignores the few people who turn their heads, “Figures.”

“Guess we’re just going to half-ass it then.”

It’s quiet for all of a second before she’s punching him in the arm while trying to stifle laughter, “That was the worst pun ever.”

To his credit he only takes a step to the side even as his arm stings with their enhanced strength, “You’re laughing. I don’t wanna hear it from you.”

They continue silently conversing as they head to Danny’s last class for the day.


	11. Are we real?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to make it longer but I didn’t.

Danny walks out of his last class with a minor headache. The other kids had started to talk and just in general make a ruckus so the teacher decided to punish the whole class for it, now they had twice as much homework than normal. How was it fair that everyone had to suffer for a few kids being stupid?

He rounds the last corner to meet up with his friends for the walk home.

Tucker and Sam are already leaning on the wall when he arrives, “I regret not taking all of my gym credits at the beginning of high school.”

Sam smiles, “That’s what you get for not listening to me. Now you have to do it alone.”

Tucker groans, “Sam! Be nice! I have to deal with the lifetime jockeys! Danny save me, my girlfriend is bullying me!”

The halfa raises his hands in surrender, “Hey, even in my ghost form I would tell you ‘you’re on your own!’”

His friend pouts while said female cackles, “Hey, aside from that, you guys want to go to Nasty Burger?”

Danny frowns while glancing over his shoulder, “I don’t know, do we?”

Tucker is looking expectantly at him but the look fades when a voice speaks from thin air, “Sorry guys. I need Danny for a while but you can have him back tomorrow.”

The couple nod and they start their trek out of the school while the ghost boy slips away to find somewhere to transform.

“I thought you didn’t need anything else today? He whispers.

“I’ve been thinking and I need some one on one ghost time with you.” Her voice is in front of him when she talks.

Finding an empty room, he quickly walks in and closes the door.

“Going Ghost!” White rings shift his clothing into the hazmat suit and the cold comes with it.

Dani drops her invisibility with a fox grin on her face, “You still say that?”

Forcing back the need to blush he points a finger at her, “It’s an old habit that pops up sometimes! I’m trying to kick it!”

She starts laughing at him before floating higher, “Let's blow this popsicle stand!”

Still highly embarrassed he follows her through the ceiling and into the sky where he holds out his hand in a ‘after you’ fashion to which the younger teen zooms off in a direction away from town.

“So where are we headed?” He asks once they reach the urban areas.

She turns to fly backwards from him, “Remember when I asked you what we were?”

He nods, it hand only been a few hours ago.

“Well, I’ve been thinking about your answer and I know you wanted to take me to meet someone but I couldn’t get the question out of my head and I don't want to deal with your family if they detect us so I figured if we talked out of town we would be ok.”

He nods and slows down to a stop, “Well we are out of town. So let’s talk.”

She stops too and floats a little closer, “Alright. Well…” falling silent she starts showing some of the familiar signs of nervousness. He did do them himself after all.

After a few solid very silent moments pass of him waiting for her to speak he finally breaks it, “Has it really been eating at you that much?”

Looking up sharply he sees the uncertainty playing in her eyes. Heaving a sigh he reassures her, “Hey, I just wanna help.”

She nods slowly before looking back to the ground far below, “I feel like a freak. I’m not human. I’m not ghost. I never lived a normal life and I never actually died. I’m not even really all me, I’m partially you and that means my thoughts and feelings are warped by your influence. My powers are almost a carbon copy of yours!”

He watches her and waits for her to continue but when all she does is look up at him he realizes she is waiting for him, “You aren’t me though. Dani, you’re your own person, sure maybe some of the things you do are similar to what I do but think about it this way. Jazz and I do things that are similar all the time.”

“Like what?”

He frowns, “Liiike… oh! We both like to put the butter on the bread before putting it in the toaster. Keeps it from going hard.”

Dani rolls her eyes, “Ok, that’s one thing.”

He points a finger at her, “Hey, I was giving you an example.”

She crosses her arms, “Yeah, your eating habits don’t really count.”

“Fine.” He throws his hands up, “Fine! Whenever we are in trouble or embarrassed we put our hand near our head, whether that means scratching or moving our hair or-“

“Grabbing the back of your neck.” She smiles at him.

Smiling back he continues, “Or grabbing the back of our neck. See, we do things that are similar all the time. But we are still different. Her hygiene routine is different from mine, her feelings are different from mine and maybe you and I are almost the same person.” Floating closer he puts his hands on her shoulders, “Buy your Danielle and I’m Daniel. There are tons of ghosts with similar powers.”

She stays silent, taking in this information before whispering, “You said that we belong where we decide to make our place.”

He nods, not sure where this is going.

“But what if I don’t want to decide where I belong? I just want to be accepted for who and what I am.”

Danny moves his hands away from her and looks at the city a few miles away from them. That was a hard question because it relied on other people to provide what she wanted. To be accepted others would have to accept you and most of them would never do that.

Looking back at her he sees the tears pool in the corners of her eyes. Feeling bad about the whole thing he opens his arms out to her, offering a hug if she wants one. Unexpectedly she surges forward, pushing him back from the force of her hug. He returns it with the only words he could think of, “I wish I had the answers to give you.”

She cries quietly, her body shaking only a little with each ragged breath. It reminded him of how he would do the same thing in his own room. Quietly so not to wake anyone, and no one to comfort him. But just for her he would be there to help. It was the least he could do.

Over time the shaking stops and she backs up enough to wipe her face before separating completely, “Sorry.”

He rubs her head, “Don’t be. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

She looks up at him with red rimmed eyes and nods.

They float there in silence, enjoying each other’s company for the few moments they had.

Finally Danny smirks at her, “Wanna race back to town?”

She gives him her own foxish smile before dashing off with a burst of speed, “LAST ONE THERE HAS TO EXPLAIN WHY I’M AT YOUR HOUSE!”

Gasping he flies after her at top speed, “HEY, HOW IS THAT FAIR?!”

He only lets her win because she was laughing the whole way home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me if there are errors.


	12. Parents ugh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this chapter is super short. But I’ve been having some issues with school so posting has been awful. Sorry for taking so long.

Danny walks through his front door to see Dani waiting with a smile plastered on her face. He ignores her in favor of looking around the house. Looks like his parents weren’t around for now but he didn’t know if they were in the basement.

He toes out of his shoes, kicking them to the side before dropping his backpack on top. Walking over to the couch he plops down next to her.

“Alright, you won. Now I get to tell mom and dad why you’re here.”

She bounces a little and he finally takes note of what she’s wearing in her human form. Her old blue hoodie had been switched out for a darker and much larger version with Embers logo on it. Her shoes are black converse instead of blue though her beanie is the same one she’s always had. Really she just looked like a taller version of herself.

“Technically their your parents. Not mine.”

He nudges her in the side, “If we have the same DNA, their yours too. Think of it like an illegitimate child.”

She laughs, “Right! At least I’m not your twin! That would be awful!”

“Hey!” He pushes her off the couch as her fit of giggles makes her an easy target.

“Danny? Is someone here?”

He flinches at his mom's voice before shouting, “Uh, yeah! Dani is here!” He watches as she climbs back onto the couch.

Loud footsteps make their way towards them before stopping, “Oh! You meant a different one! Heya kid! Wanna see my newest ghost invention?”

The two sitting on the couch roll their eyes before Danny waves his hand, “Dad, you’re not supposed to use those indoor remember? We made it a house rule that if a ghost wasn’t in the house then ghost weapons can’t be used in it.”

His father sags a little while his mother slips around him, “Heya kids, Danielle what brings you here? I thought your family lived up in Wisconsin?”

Dani for her part keeps all traces of negative emotion hidden away so well that he can’t even tell she’s upset, “Oh, you know. Wanted to visit good old Danny here before I started school.”

The woman smiles widely, “Oh that’s wonderful. It’s nice to see you dear. Now that we know it’s just you we’re going to go back to work.”

“YES!” Jack shouts, “Back to Jazz’s ghost shield!” Before running back through the kitchen and down the stairs.

Maddie followed after at a much more relaxed pace, “Have fun kids!”

Once their footsteps have faded once more Dani sags down in her seat, “Honestly, I’m surprised you’re not more messed up after living with them for so long.”

He leans back with a sigh, “You know what? Me too.”

They sit in comfortable silence before Dani pulls out her phone, it’s old and the screen is cracked in multiple places but when she presses the power button it works all the same, “I listened to Ambers newest album. She even gave it the name Space Ward. Have you heard it?”

Danny laughs, “Yeah actually. She was at my house when she named it. Said I have her the idea.”

“You must have been talking about astronauts then.” She nods her head as if she just solved a puzzle, “Going to space always did sound fun. Hey, why did you decide to drop it?”

He gives her a confused look, “What do you mean? I didn’t drop anything.”

She points to him with an accusing look, “Nope! Nu-uh. I know for a fact that the classes you’re taking right now won’t get you into space school! Not even as an elective! So, why aren’t you trying to get into a space program?”

He sighs heavily, he hated that question. Going into space had been his dream since he was little and having to throw that all away…

“I can’t do it.”

She frowns at him, “Why not?”

He throws his arms up with exasperation dripping from his voice, “They have to do so many tests! Blood work, medical work, physical work, mental work! The problem is that I would pass all of those tests but they could also find out about EVERYTHING I’ve been hiding for years. DNA tests would turn into experimentation, I would have the Guys in White after me again, my medical work doesn’t exist because I don’t go to a doctor anymore, my physicals would drive them up the walls, and my mental state is fake.” He finishes with a huff and he sinks back into the couch, dropping his arms to his sides dramatically.

Next to him, Dani makes an understanding noise, “Oh yeah that makes sense. I’ve never thought that part out.”

He sighs again and stares daggers into his discarded backpack, “Yeah, sorry to rain on your parade. I know I hated learning all of that.”

She nods in sad sympathy, it made sense, they both had the same desire once upon a time, now it was shattered because they weren’t even human. “Hey.”

Danny hums low, to show he was listening.

“Wanna play some video games?”

He grins despite himself, “Heck yeah I do. Then I can trash you for winning the race.”

She jumps up and goes to the tv, “Yeah, right. Can’t beat me in real life, can’t beat me in fake life.”

He lunges off of the couch to tackle her, narrowly avoiding crashing into the tv and tickles her, “I can totally beat you in real life!”

She erupts into a fit of laughter, trying to push him off with all of her might.

They would be just fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if there are any mistakes!


	13. Part of the Zone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I blew my own mind.

Danny floats just outside of the large clock tower. They had left after his parents went to bed to see if they could find the mysterious man and Danny had been surprised at how easy it had been.

He leads Dani inside, dodging the various clocks and cogs as they go. It takes some time but they finally reach the main room with no trouble. Danny lands silently across the room from the man he was looking for.

“Hey Clockwork.”

Said ghost turns to them, his ever shifting form having no effect on his soothing voice, “Hello Phantom.”

Danny looks next to him to see his counterpart looking around in amazement.

“This is Dani. Dani this is Clockwork.”

She looks to the man in question, her face morphing into confusion when the man goes from looking old to young, “Y-Yeah. Hi.”

Clockwork smiles at her, “I’ve been waiting to meet you young halfa.”

Her eyes widen slightly, “You… were?”

He nods, “I’ve been watching you for a very long time.”

She starts shifting around uncomfortably and Danny decides to save her, “Clockwork is the ghost of time. He watches the past, future and present, as well as alternate timelines in order to keep the balance. He’s actually the reason why I’m not a monster.”

Her eyes flick to him and he can see the awe in them. He had felt the same way when he first met the ghost.

Turning back to said man he waves his hand, “I assume you know why we’re here.”

Clockwork nods, an amused smile on his face as he stays silent.

Danny groans, “Are we really doing this? I thought that was a one time thing?”

The older him nods his head, “You must ask your question before I respond to you. I can only see the future, not read your mind.”

Sighing he nods, they had this conversation before and he STILL forgets it, “Right, we were wondering if you could tell us about the rumors going around. The ones with the ghost zones edges shrinking?”

The smile turns to a frown as he gestures for them to come closer. As they move he waves his staff to change one of the larger screens into something else. Once they get closer, they start to notice that it looks familiar.

Dani speaks first, “Is that a picture of the ghost zone?”

The time ghost nods, “This is the ghost zone exactly one week ago.” He waves his hand and the green circle starts to shrink rapidly, “This is a sped up version of what has been happening since then.”

They watch as a good third of the green circle is engulfed in black.

“So the zone is shrinking.” Danny leans back, folding his arms over his chest as he thinks about what this means.

Dani floats up a little to get a better look at the screen, “Is this going to keep happening?”

The man stays silent for a moment before waving his hand once more, the green circle continues to get smaller, “Our current path in time will lead to the zone continuing to shrink until it no longer exists. Once this happens, the human world will begin to be affected by it as well.”

The two halfa’s share a look before looking back at him.

“What's causing this?” Danny can feel his anxiousness rising.

“It’s a type of ghost that most won't remember as being real. You see, while ghosts of horror exist, they are often mistaken for demons. This also means that demons are considered unreal to the ghost zone.”

Dani puts the pieces together before Danny does, “But demons are real.”

The ghost nods, “Demons are very real. A long time ago, before man knew of ghosts, demons walked both plains at their leisure. They did whatever they pleased with both humans and ghosts alike. One day a hero, a ghost with incredible strength unheard of in those times, forced the demons out of the human realm. This however trapped the vile beasts inside the ghost zone, causing havoc among the dead. Realizing that what they had done was only good for half of the realms he stretched his power out, forcing the demons away from the entrances to the human realm creating a ‘zone’.” The ghost gestures around them, “In doing this however, he could not bring his original form back into being.”

Dani lands on the ground and gives him a sad look, “So this hero is dead?”

A shake of his head, “No. While he cannot take his form anymore, he is the ghost zone itself. His power surrounds us at all times. Keeping us safe from the demons on the outside.” He shifts to his younger form, “His power has been steadily growing weaker over the years. Because while a ghost can have infinite power, it is only possible if it is not consistently being eaten away at. That is what the demons have been doing.”

Danny shakes his head, “Ok, but what can we do about it? Neither of us are that strong, and we hardly leave Amity park.”

Clockwork turns to him, his eyes pinning him to the spot that he stands, “But you could be.”

Struck speechless he waits for the ghost of time to continue, “Have you ever wondered why stepping into your parents ghost portal gave you ghost DNA when a ghost is simply a dead spirit?”

Danny squirms a little but nods his head, “The thing that made the hero of our past so special and strong was because he was pure ghost. He was created from the collected discarded energy of a multitude of other ghosts, a being made solely of the ghost realm.” Clockwork taps his staff against Danny’s chest, “And when your parents created a portal, an opening to the other realm, the existing energy that was in its place was fused into your DNA.”

Silence takes over the room for a moment as they sit there and think about what they had just heard. He was half ghost because of the ghost zone? He had though he was just half dead.

Dani interrupts his thoughts, “Wait, does that mean Vlad is part ghost zone too?”

Toxic green eyes meet as the implications whirl around them.

“That is correct Danielle. While his methods were unethical, you too share this trait with them both.”

She stands wide eyed, staring at the man like her world had just turned upside down. And really who was he to judge he was in the same boat. They weren’t half dead, they were half ghost zone? That didn’t even make any sense.

He waves his hands in front of his face, “Wait, wait, wait. Does that mean we took power from this random ghost and that’s why the zones are shrinking?”

Clockwork shakes his head, “No. the power that was given to both you and Plasmius it was only enough to trigger the transformation. So while it changed your DNA, all of your powers are your own. It’s also why you three should feel stronger here than in the human realm.”

Momentary panic gone, he tries to make his brain function and process everything. It was a lot to take in.

Dani whisper something seemingly to herself but it shakes him to hear it, “Then we belong here.”

This is too much. Searching for his core, he watches as the rings engulf him. Changing him from his ghost half to his human half. Feeling his heart begin to beat again he sits down on the ground and holds his head in his hands, This was a lot to take in and he needed a minute to just… sit.

Dani is soon sitting next to him, she hasn’t changed back but he doesn’t mind. She preferred her ghost half more than he did. Vaguely he realizes that Clockwork put something soft under them before going back to staring at the screens, ever dutiful in his job as the ghost of all time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if there’s a mistake! Also, I REALLY want to know how you reacted to this chapter!


	14. Your own person

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooooh more spooky ghost story!

Danny sits up from where he had fallen back, he stares at the ghost of time accusingly, “Why didn’t you tell me any of this sooner?”

Clockwork doesn’t turn from where he is looking, “You know why.”

Danny rolls his eyes, “Entertain me.”

Finally the man turns, “It was not time for you to know.”

Dani scoffs from where she’s laying, “Is he always like this?”

The black haired teen nods his head, “Yeah. It didn’t used to be this bad when I first met him.”

Clockwork smirks slightly, “I had to explain a lot more to you then. By now you should be familiar with all of my workings.”

Danny ignores the poor joke and leans back on his hands, “Ok. So. We,” He points between himself and Dani, “Are not half dead.” He gets a nod, “But we are half ghost.” Another nod, “And you’re saying we could stop these… demons… if we got stronger?” A nod.

Dani sits bolt upright, “Wait but I’m not actually human. I’m a clone! How can I be half ghost like Danny if I wasn’t fused with the ghost zone like he was?”

Clockwork holds up a hand to produce a small length of chain, “Think of it this way. This chain is Phantom when he was human.” He waves his hand and the chain turns green, “This is his DNA after he became ghost.”

They nod, it made sense so far, “Now. What Plasmius did was he took half of the existing chain,” The chain splits down the middle, it’s weird to see since all of the links were in half now, “And filled in the blanks with cloning science.” Another Half chain joins with the second one, forming a full set once more, “He did this with both halves of the DNA until something worked. That is why there were so many that weren’t stable. Because he was using the exact same strain twice.”

They nod their head, bio-science wasn’t something they were very good at but they understood the basics because of Danny’s parents.

“So why was I the only stable one?”

Clockwork waves his hands to get rid of the chains and places his hand behind his back, “You were made in that same way. The reason you were stable was because he used two different parts of Danny’s DNA. It’s the same reason you are female and not male like all of the other clones he had created.”

Danny tilts his head, “So Vlad copied… my female DNA?”

The ghost nods, “All human genetic material has a female part, including men.”

Dani throws her hands up, “OK! Done with that discussion! So, in less gross terms. I’m just Danny if he were a girl.”

Clockwork nods, and thankfully doesn’t elaborate on the subject.

He can feel her deflate slightly next to him but before he can say anything the ghost starts talking slowly, “But, that doesn’t mean you are Phantom. Not one person in the ghost zone or the human realm would call you Phantom because you share DNA. For now, you haven’t made a name for yourself here because you feel shadowed by how you were created and while that might be where you came from it is not who you are.”

Dani looks up at the taller ghost with something close to hope in her eyes.

“You, Danielle. Are your own person. You do not have to be Dani Phantom if you don’t want to be. Think about it first. Explore your powers. Then, when you are ready. You can come and tell me who you are.”

She nods slowly, seemingly distracted by what he had said. Danny feels a smile pull at his face. He knows how much she’s been struggling with coming to terms with her life let alone existing. Hopefully, with what Clockwork said she’ll start feeling better.

He looks to said ghost, “Clockwork, you mentioned us being able to get as strong as this ancient ghost but you never said how. If we have some sort of time limit do you think we can really make it?”

Clockwork reaches into his cloak and pulls out two necklaces, these ones aren’t like his usual time stopping ones so he isn’t sure what they are.

“These necklaces will teleport you to a place where you can readily train without interruption. All you have to do to activate it is put a little of your power into the amulet and it will take you to where you need to go. Keep in mind that it is personalized, so even if you used it at the same time, you might not end up in the same place.”

Dani takes hers without a word and puts it on, working mostly on autopilot. Danny puts his on as well, “Will it activate if I transform?”

Clockwork shakes his head, “No. It will only activate if you try to activate it.”

They nod, “Is there anything else we need to know?”

A portal opens behind them while the ghost says his next words, “I will be giving one of these to Plasmius as well.”

They have no time to protest as some sort of force pulls them through the portal. Clockwork smiling fondly at where they had disappeared.

“He won’t be as much of a problem for you as you two will be for him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if I made a mistake!
> 
> Also I really want your opinion on my theory!


	15. What I know

Danny slumps on his bed. The past few days had been rough and he really just wanted a sleep but he had a second halfa in his room floating aimlessly in circles and it was really distracting.

“Dani. Please, you’re going to give me motion sickness and I’m not even moving.”

She flips over to look at him, “We don’t get motion sick.”

He rolls his eyes, “You know what I mean.”

She pauses in her motions before heaving a heavy sigh, “Yeah, I know. But how can you relax after everything Clockwork told us?”

He shrugs, “I’ve been doing it for years. I find from personal experience, that it’s easier to sleep on it and wait until my head is a little clearer before thinking too much.” He points a finger at her floating form, “Like you’re doing now.”

She drops onto the bed next to him with a huff, “Oh, shut up. Why don’t you help me think about something else then, if you’re so wise.”

He rolls to face her direction before speaking, “Well, Amber told me a lot about ghosts. Wanna hear that?”

She shrugs, “Why not? Since I have nothing better to do.”

Ignoring her jab, he thinks of where to start, “Ok well, to start off apparently ghosts are ranked by class.”

“Like in a video game?”

“Exactly like a video game. There’s even a rarity chart for ghosts.”

She scoffs, “So which came first, video games or ghosts?”

He shrugs, “I don’t know, let me finish.” She folds her arms under her chin and lays on them, “So I think it goes common, uncommon, rare, legendary, and mystical? No, mythical. I can’t remember them all.” He waves his hand, “Then there’s uncategorized.”

She lifts her head, “So what are we?”

“A halfa is considered mythical. I’m not sure what gets you into the category but I don’t think it matters?” She shrugs and he continues, “And apparently they have a strength chart, I only remember that Weak is slightly better than Fragile, you’ll have to ask Amber for the rest.”

She nods and lays her head back down, “So what would box-ghost be considered?”

Danny takes a moment to think before replying, “I think he’s a stationary ghost? No, he doesn’t stay in one place so I guess he would be a restless ghost? Those are common, so he would be a weak-restless ghost.”

She nods, “What’s Amber?”

“She confirmed being a Wandering ghost but I’m not sure where her power would be, but I know she’s not fragile or weak.”

Dani rolls off the bed and stands, “I can’t think of anyone else. Do you think Clockwork would know where our powers would rank?”

He nods, “Definitely. Where you going?”

She transforms back into her human form, “Nowhere. What else did you learn?”

He rolls onto his back again, arms behind his head while Dani sits back down, “Uh, let me think. Well, the ghost zone is shrinking.” She hums, “The ghost zone has a center pull.” She sits up.

“Oh yeah, I’ve noticed that.”

He turns his head, “Really?”

“Yeah,” Her face goes thoughtful, “When I’m in the ghost zone I always know where I am. Kind of like having an inner compass.”

“Ooh, that makes way more sense than what Amber said.”

A nod, “What else?”

“Uh, demons exist? We’re part ghost zone? I only have enough of my homework done to pass tomorrow’s classes but not the day after,” She giggles at him, “Sam and Tucker are steady, Jazz is leaving, Ghosts are in danger, we’re going to be forced to work with Vlad, my powers are leaking through to my human form.”

She holds up a hand, “Hold up what? Your powers are ‘leaking’ through? What does that mean?”

Danny sits up and looks at her, “Just don’t hit me when I show you ok? Tucker almost jumped out of his pants.” Taking a deep breath, he finds those negative emotions and forces them out like he had last time.

With a jolt, the dark haired girl falls off the bed with a squeak of confusion, grunting when she makes contact with the ground, “Ach! What the heck was that?!”

Danny leans over the edge to see her standing up abruptly, “At least you didn’t hit me.”

She shoos him away from her spot on the bed and sits down, “How did you do that? I’ve only gotten that to work in my ghost form.”

He lays back down, “Negative emotion. Just get really mad and think about using your powers without changing. It’s hard if you’re trying to force it but it gets easier over time.”

She nods in understanding, “Huh. What else has happened?”

He tries to think, “It’s almost like when I had first gotten my powers but I have control over it.” Focusing on what he knew about his powers, he lets himself sink into the bed slightly before flying up out of it. Then turning himself invisible before plopping back down on the bed.

“Cool! So, you can use your powers in both forms?”

Danny makes a sort of motion with his hand, “Kinda? I can’t use my ghostly wail, I can’t fly very far, I can only do things in short bursts and I definitely can’t use plasma blasts. It’s super limited.”

She nods, bouncing in place with excitement buzzing around her, “Still! That’s a lot more than before! I can’t wait to get to that point! Oh man, I wanna start training now!”

Taking a moment to regard his other half, technically sister, he gauges whether or not it’s a good idea to send her so early. Her bouncing hasn’t stopped and, while he can’t blame her, he also really wants her to go to bed already. Nodding to himself he points to her chest.

“You have the amulet, don't you?”

She pauses before looking down, confusion making her move her sweater enough to pull out said amulet.

“Why not try it out?”

She looks up at him, hesitation and worry warring on her face with anticipation and excitement.

“Clockwork wouldn’t give us something that would seriously hurt you. I won’t stop you from trying it either.”

She sits back on her butt, turning away from him slightly to stare at the thing in her hands, “You won’t be mad if I go alone?”

He shakes his head, “Nah, Clockwork told us that we might not be in the same place anyway.”

She nods slowly, the thought turning in her head. The next moment, she’s shifting forms and channeling power into her amulet. Time slows a fraction of a second, leaving him wondering if everything will stop while she does this.

Time speeds up again as the amulet drops out of her hands, falling loosely around her neck. He only has a second to blink before she sags like a marionette with its strings cut. Lunging out of bed, he catches her before she can fall.

Panic quickly overrides his senses when she changes back into her human form. He lays her down on the bed, ready to check for a pulse when a loud snore stops him cold.

“Jeez. You scared me.”

Glancing at her sleeping face, he gets out of the bed and throws the blanket over her before making his way downstairs.

“Couch it is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m looking for betas if you’re interested.
> 
> https://discord.gg/bzYZqY8


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